How to change SQL Agent/Server start up account?
Hi, I have an existing 2 node active-actvie SQL 2008 R2 Veritas 6.0 cluster. When I installed the SQL instance on each node, I set a specific AD user for starting the SQL Agent and SQL Server service. I set it the same on each node. I now want to change that to a different user. I know how to do that via the SQL Server Configuration Manager on each node, but is that the correct way to do it in a Veritas cluster? Changing it there will restart the service and cause a failover I believe. What is the correct way to do this?
Hi scogeb,
This is going to cause problems. With SQL on Windows we start the SQL services in the virtual server context. Changing the startup account as you describe will cause the SQL services to be restarted outside of VCS and the SQL resources will go to an unknown state.
I have 2 approaches to change the SQL startup account for you.
Approach #1:
1. Offline the SQL resources (not the entire service group) in VCS.
2. Change the startup account for SQL in SQL Studio or in SCM as needed.
3. Online the SQL resources as needed.
FYI - don't forget to change the startup account on the remaining nodes in the cluster.
Approach #2:
Or you could do this with SQL active on node 1
1. Node 2 (incative node) change the SQL startup account in SQL Studio or SCM
2. Fail over the SQL service group from node 1 to node 2.
3. Node 1 (now the incative node) change the SQL startup account in SQL Studio or SCM
Also keep in mind that the SQL2008 resource has a User, Domain and Password attributes that might need to be updated if you are also changing the account that DetailMonitoring should use.
Thank you,
Wally